Venezuelan Government Buried Pilot Óscar Pérez Without Family's Approval [VIDEO]

Former elite police officer Oscar Perez's grave identified with a brick and a uniform surrounded with flowers at a cemetery in Caracas on January 21, 2018. Perez's body was buried by the government early in the morning on January 21 against his family's will. He was Venezuela's most wanted man since June when he flew a stolen police helicopter over Caracas dropping grenades on the Supreme Court and opening fire on the Interior Ministry, had gone on social media while the operation was under way on January 16 to say he and his group wanted to surrender but were under unrelenting sniper fire. That has raised questions about the government's account that the seven dissidents killed had opened fire on police who had gone to arrest them. Photo: FEDERICO PARRA/AFP/Getty Images

Almost a week after being killed in a confrontation with the Venezuelan National Police, Óscar Pérez's body was buried on Sunday morning, January 21, in the Eastern Cemetery in Caracas.

The Venezuelan ex-cop broadcasted on Instagram while he was confronting the officers in an operation called “Operación Gedeón” by the government. Venezuela's Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, Néstor Reverol, confirmed his death and also confirmed that six other people accompanying Pérez died, identifying them as terrorists.

According to CNN and AFP, the burial was against the widow of the deceased and his mother's will, and the cemetery was guarded by the National Guard and only two relatives of the ex-police were present at the funeral.

CNN also reported that a source with knowledge of the investigation has seen all the death certificates, and assured that six of the seven bodies found in the morgue in Caracas died due to a bullet impact in the head, including Pérez, adding that the seventh corpse is of a woman, and died of a bullet impact in the vertebrae. According to the documents of the morgue, Pérez has a "severe head injury due to a gunshot wound to the head."

The day of the confrontation, Pérez published several videos of him on his Instagram account along with other members of his team. Covered in blood, he was denouncing that members of the police fired at them. "We're wounded ... they're killing us!" he said while gunshots were fired in the background. In the last video Óscar Pérez posted on Instagram he yelled at the Venezuelan police: "We are going to surrender. Don't keep shooting." As presented by Instagram's basic terms, any "violent, nude, partially nude, discriminatory, unlawful, infringing, hateful, pornographic or sexually suggestive photos or other content via the Service," will be removed and the social service company reserves "the right to modify or terminate the Service" without notice, for the same reason the videos and account of Óscar Pérez with the handle @equilibriogv are no longer available.

Newsweek reported that Pérez was known as the “Venezuelan James Bond” after he stole a police helicopter and attacked government buildings with lob grenades in June 2017. Pérez also broke into a National Guard unit last December to steal weapons and keep his fight against Maduro's leftist government.

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